March 13, 2009, Newsletter Issue #324: Why is it so important for my child to be supervised after school?

Tip of the Week

The peak hours for juvenile crime and victimization are from 2 to 8 p.m.—hours when youth are most often without supervision. The frequency of violent juvenile crime nationally is four times greater in the after-school hours than during the curfew hours between 10 p.m. and 6:00 a.m., according to the Department of Justice.

Eighth graders unsupervised for 11 or more hours a week experience twice the risk of substance abuse as those who are under some form of adult supervision; after-school hours are also the most likely time for adolescents to engage in sexual intercourse; and children ages 10 to 15 are most at risk of becoming involved with a gang, according to "A Matter of Time."

Absent a meaningful attachment to a group, some kids are drawn to gangs. "Children, especially adolescents, crave excitement and group activity. If they can´t find it in programs organized by responsible adults, they become far more likely to find it in gangs. Too many children today have too little access to structured activity with positive role models," write James Alan Fox, Ph.D., Dean, College of Criminal Justice, Northeastern University and Sanford A. Newman, president of Fight Crime: Invest in Kids.

In a Louis Harris poll, half of the teachers questioned said that "children left on their own after school" is the primary cause of school failure. Many of America´s economic competitors supplement formal education with academically focused out-of-school programs. Without adult supervision, television is more likely to be the sitter. American teenagers spend, on average, about 21 hours a week watching TV, according to Carnegie. In contrast, they read for pleasure 1.8 hours and do homework 5.6 hours.

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